


You Only Live Twice

by manic_intent



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, M/M, That AU where Harry shoots Eggsy with the amnesia dart in the pub, and Eggsy never joins Kingsman, and the world pretty much... goes to hell, postcanon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-04
Updated: 2015-10-04
Packaged: 2018-04-24 18:23:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4930312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manic_intent/pseuds/manic_intent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gunshots rang out, causing Eggsy to flinch against Daisy. He peered out warily, and blinked. The bikers were dead. One had his head shattered, his bike on its flank several feet away, shot right off. The two women were dead, in a heap of metal and scrap, their chests bloody cavities. Eggsy could hear the last biker, revving away, shrieking, and then a tall man stepped into view, and for a moment Eggsy had to rub his eyes in disbelief.</p><p>The stranger was wearing a <i>suit</i>, a gods-be-fucking-damned <i>suit</i>, if dusty at the cuffs and the heels, the shirt softened from too many washes and faintly discoloured. He was wearing a satchel at his hip, and had a pair of black-rimmed glasses on, with a scar over one eye, and seemed to be in his mid to late fifties, at least, broad-shouldered, handsome. In his hands was an M4 carbine, which he raised efficiently to his shoulder, dropping to one knee in a fluid, graceful move, aiming and firing a short burst. Distantly, to the left, there was a dying scream.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Only Live Twice

**Author's Note:**

> for wildmushrooms(?): Hartwin, Amnesia dart used on Eggsy, Eggsy never joins Kingsman/forgets everything about Harry. 5/5 prompts \o/
> 
> Originally I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to take this prompt. Technically I’ve already written an extremely long-winded amnesia Hartwin fic. However, I guess I haven’t written dark post-apocalyptic for some time… ;) 
> 
> How else did you guys think a fic like this would go? I mean, if Harry shoots Eggsy with the dart in that pub, and Eggsy never joins Kingsman - Harry still gets shot outside that church, except that Eggsy is not around to realize that Arthur has been bought. So Merlin and Roxy never get around to trying to foil Valentine’s plans. Hell, Roxy probably flunks out of Kingsman, since there’s no one to talk her down during the parachuting. Daisy and Michelle most likely wouldn’t survive. 
> 
> I’ve already considered how a Valentine Wins scenario would go in Ace of Spades, and I’m too lazy to think of another one, so I’m going to borrow a little from Firefly, Children of Men and Fallout.

Some say the world will end in fire,  
Some say in ice.  
From what I’ve tasted of desire  
I hold with those who favor fire.  
But if it had to perish twice,  
I think I know enough of hate  
To say that for destruction ice  
Is also great  
And would suffice.

\- Robert Frost

I.

Daybreak. Eggsy was unceremoniously kicked out of sleep by the sounds of engines revving. He rolled onto his stomach, blinking away sleep and rubbing his eyes, breathing in the smell of his own sour breath, the crushed grass beneath him, soil, machine oil and dog fur. Beside him, Daisy snuffled and growled, the red heeler mix thumping its tail nervously against Eggsy’s flank, but staying silent when Eggsy placed his palm over the back of its neck. Cautiously, Eggsy edged over to the bumper of his car, hidden from the road by leaves and branches, and twitched part of the veil of leaves aside.

Eggsy had hidden his car off the side of the road, but up a small hill, giving him decent visibility of the main road below that cut its way through an otherwise unbroken sprawl of woodlands. What he saw made him crouch down further into the grass and pull Daisy instinctively closer. Reavers on bikes, laughing wildly as they circled around a pair of stumbling, running men, one older, in his fifties, one younger, maybe Eggsy’s age. 

Their shoes were torn, but their clothes looked washed and mended at patches - probably settlers who had ventured out too far on a supply run and fallen headlong into trouble. There were four Reavers, in the patched, filthy, soot-stained clothes that marked them out from a distance as the wolves of men, old blood caked black on their foreheads like war paint, hair shorn off to bald scalps, two men, two women. The women were revving their bikes, filed teeth bared in amusement, while the men did circus rings around the victims. They were toying with their prey. Fresh meat.

Daisy whined again, and Eggsy soothed it with a low murmur. He wished he could look away, inured as he was to the brutality that was now part of everyday life in what had once been the United Kingdom. Like the rest of the world, it was united no longer. The Collapse that had killed off most of the world’s population had divided who remained into hunter and hunted. 

Eggsy couldn’t even quite bring himself to hate the Reavers. Years ago they had been normal too, most of them, mums and dads and kids who’d have gone to 9-5 jobs and kissed their spouses at home and taken their sons and daughters to soccer matches. But the switch that had flicked in the hours during the end of the world had simply not flipped back, for a percentage of the survivors. Some had killed each other. Others had banded together like vultures, like to like, living off everyone else.

One of the men shot past, swinging a heavy steel bat. It connected with the older man’s shoulder, driving him sprawling, then the biker swung back, running him over with a loud, wet crunch. The old man screamed, ear-splittingly loud, and now Eggsy looked away, burying his face in Daisy’s fur, listening to her low frightened whimpers. He cursed himself for having hidden the car here. Eggsy should’ve driven on, deeper into the woods. He’d been afraid in the late evening that he would accidentally drive into a ditch and mire down the car. On hindsight, he should’ve taken the risk. The screams were climbing, growing louder, more agonised, no longer human. Then abruptly they cut off, and it was only the revving again, and the final victim’s sobs and pleas-

Gunshots rang out, causing Eggsy to flinch against Daisy. He peered out warily, and blinked. The bikers were dead. One had his head shattered, his bike on its flank several feet away, shot right off. The two women were dead, in a heap of metal and scrap, their chests bloody cavities. Eggsy could hear the last biker, revving away, shrieking, and then a tall man stepped into view, and for a moment Eggsy had to rub his eyes in disbelief.

The stranger was wearing a _suit_ , a gods-be-fucking-damned _suit_ , if dusty at the cuffs and the heels, the shirt softened from too many washes and faintly discoloured. He was wearing a satchel at his hip, and had a pair of black-rimmed glasses on, with a scar over one eye, and seemed to be in his mid to late fifties, at least, broad-shouldered, handsome. In his hands was an M4 carbine, which he raised efficiently to his shoulder, dropping to one knee in a fluid, graceful move, aiming and firing a short burst. Distantly, to the left, there was a dying scream. 

The survivor backed away as the stranger got to his feet, but even as the stranger held out a hand, the survivor ran for it, screaming, into the trees. The stranger lowered his carbine, watching him go, then he seemed to sigh, and turned around - then he froze, as Daisy let out a yelp. Horrified, Eggsy realized that he had been holding on to it too tightly. The dog shot Eggsy a guilty stare, but it was too late. The stranger was coming up the hill, grim-faced. 

“Come out.” The stranger stopped halfway up the hill. “You’ve covered up the car but I can see it now.” Even his _accent_ was aristocratic, BBC-perfect. Eggsy hadn’t heard the like in _years_ ; it felt utterly strange listening to it in the middle of a forest in buttfuck nowhere. “Come on. I know you’re not one of them, or you’d have attacked me by now. I’m not going to hurt you.” 

Eggsy debated staying under the car and waiting for the stranger to go away. He’d just seen the man kill four people, for Gods’ sake. But then the stranger pulled something from his satchel - a bottle of water, and held it out. “It’s fresh water.” 

Now Eggsy was tempted, but years living rough by himself in the ruins outside what had once been London had taught him to check if a gift horse was prepping to stab him in the back. “Throw it o’er here first, bruv,” he suggested. 

The stranger smiled thinly, and tossed the bottle over. It landed heavily in the grass next to the hidden car. “There.”

“Seems t’me like we’re doing fine talking like this,” Eggsy ventured, frowning to himself. There was something vaguely familiar about the stranger. Had Eggsy seen him before somewhere? He was military of some sort, but he certainly didn’t look like anyone Eggsy would have seen in the Marines. 

“All right,” the stranger said gently. “My name’s Harry, by the way.” 

“Uh, sure.” Well, this wouldn’t hurt. “M’name’s Eggsy.” 

“ _Eggsy_?” Harry actually blinked, startled. “Eggsy Unwin?” 

Oh, now he was in for it. Eggsy tried edging quietly backwards. Maybe if he and Daisy made a run for it… but it was too late. Harry had walked right up to the car, shoving off the covering branches, then he went down on one knee, peering under. Eggsy froze, even as Daisy bared its teeth, growling, and hastily, Eggsy pinned it down under an arm, raising his hands palms up, as far as they could go under the car.

“Whoa, whoa. Don’t shoot, bruv.”

“You don’t…” Harry blinked. “You don’t remember me.” 

“Never seen you before in my life,” Eggsy said warily. 

“Ah yes.” Harry said, sounding suddenly resigned. “That was a large dose,” he muttered to himself, then he straightened up, backing off. “I knew your father, Eggsy. And when you were a child I gave you a medal with a number on it. Do you recall that?”

“… Sure,” Eggsy said, with a shaky laugh. That’s right. He did vaguely remember something or other about that. “Guess that secret code thing don’t work now, innit? World’s gone way, way to hell.” 

“Yes it has,” Harry said, looking distracted, _tired_ , even. “My God, it has. How’s your… how’s your mother?”

“The Collapse happened, bruv. She’s gone. Me sis, too.” Eggsy said, and stared in surprise as Harry let out a choked sound and turned away, as though genuinely grieved. That was weird. “Hey,” Eggsy added cautiously. “Uh. S’all right. Everybody lost somebody, yeah?” 

“And all we can do now is… keep killing those who survived,” Harry said wearily, gesturing with the muzzle of his carbine towards the bikers and their victims. “I’m sorry, Eggsy. I really am. I can’t tell you how sorry I am that all this has come to pass.”

“Uh, sure,” Eggsy said slowly, mystified. “I kinda… really don’t see what you had t’do with it, bruv. But sure.” 

“I tried to stop it,” Harry said pensively. “But I was already growing old. My instincts were not quite what they were. I got shot and by the time I woke up the world had ended. Civilisation had all but collapsed… we’d irradiated entire swathes of the world… the only world powers remaining are Russia and North Korea…” Harry shook his head. “And all I can do is roam around shooting people who were once normal themselves.” 

“Maybe you should drink some water, man,” Eggsy said, wondering what the hell was going on. Daisy had enough, however - it wriggled out from under the car, wagging its tail cautiously as it padded over to Harry. He patted it on the head, and that decided Eggsy: Daisy was usually a pretty good judge of character. He pulled himself out from under the car, dusting off the leaves that had stuck to his jacket and jeans. 

Harry studied him carefully. “You’re thinner than what I remember,” Harry said finally.

“So’s everyone.” 

“I’m operating from a settlement. You’re welcome to follow me there. Get something warm to eat.” 

Eggsy shook his head. “I don’t go near settlements.” He’d had a lot of bad experiences early on, particularly with those that had gone full-on Rapture-style religious. 

“No strings attached,” Harry said carefully, looking pained at Eggsy’s refusal. “It’s not too far away. Tell you what,” Harry added kindly. “You can follow my car in yours. At any point if you feel like you’re not comfortable you can leave. I won’t be offended. Or try to follow you.”

“Okay.” Eggsy could do that. At the very least, he’d be able to find out which settlement was sending out armed assassins to pick off Reavers. “Sounds good.”

1.0.

Eggsy ate with a young man’s enthusiastic gusto. He was thinner, his clothes hanging off his shoulders, and he was sporting several days’ worth of beard, and like most drifters he smelled rank, but sitting opposite him in the canteen, Harry could only feel a giddy sense of relief. He hadn’t destroyed _everything_ in the world with his failure.

Finding Eggsy felt like a sudden unscheduled halt in the slow spiral of black guilt and despair that Harry had been caught in since he had woken up in a hospital with Merlin hovering anxiously over him, fully armed, the door blockaded. By some miracle the subsonic bullet had glanced off the special alloy of the frame and had gouged a deep gash in his head, grazing bone, instead of shattering Harry’s skull and lodging in his brain, and Valentine hadn’t thought to check.

“This is pretty good,” Eggsy said indistinctly, as he ate. “You guys grow your own stuff?”

“Mostly.” 

“You uh, running the joint?” Eggsy glanced around. 

Ironically, they were in what was once a prison, the inmates having murdered each other during the Collapse. Now nothing was locked and the main yards were covered in crops, with livestock living in some repurposed penned exercise areas. The settlement was secure and had electricity, cobbled together by Merlin scavenging off the grid, at first, then years of stealing and putting together solar panels, peppering most of the roofs. 

“No.” 

Merlin had offered, but Harry had refused. Valentine’s victory had shattered more than the world - it had meted a fatal blow to Harry’s confidence. It had been his mistakes that had killed the world. So Percival ran the settlement, along with Merlin, and Harry… patrolled. Some days he sent survivors back to the base. But mostly he could do little but to try to impose some order on chaos. It was a futile and thankless task.

“Well uh,” Eggsy blinked, “It’s kinda run a lot better than the rest that I’ve seen. So give uh, whoever it is my regards.” 

“I will.” The glasses were still functional, at least: Merlin had pirated an uplink through a satellite and covered their tracks. It meant that Merlin was most certainly watching Harry’s feed. “You could stay if you liked. Help work the fields.” 

“Thanks, but nah.” 

“Are you heading somewhere?”

“Nope. But me an’ Daisy, we like the road.” Eggsy was growing a little defensive. Carefully, Harry changed the subject. 

“Well, if you find wanderers like yourself who _are_ looking for a settlement, feel free to send them our way. We’re at half capacity still.”

“Sure.” This made Eggsy grin again, for a moment, then he sobered up, even as he finished his bowl. “Y’know. You said earlier, some funny talk about how you tried to stop this. The Collapse. So what happened, really?”

“The free SIM cards,” Harry said quietly. “From Valentine.”

“Ah.” Eggsy nodded. “I thought it was that.” At Harry’s blink, Eggsy said dryly, “I been thinking about this for _years_ , bruv. This shit happened all over the _world_. What else rolled out all over the world before that? _Free_ SIM cards, yeah? Stood to reason. ‘Sides. Me… me _mum_ got one of the cards. Days before.” Eggsy pushed his bowl carefully to the side. “Stood to reason.”

“How did you survive? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Eggsy looked embarrassed. “My friends and I were… well. We were out of it at the time.”

“Sleeping?”

“Kinda. We were smoking a joint. Celebrating me mysteriously getting bailed out of jail with no charges and then Dean disappearing without a trace. Kinda went on a happy bender. When we sobered up, the world had gone to shit.” For a moment, Eggsy looked haunted, then he forced a smile. “Funny how things roll, huh.” 

“And where are your friends now?”

“Settled here and there. I’m the only one still moving. S’not my thing.” Eggsy looked closely at Harry. “Did you uh. When you got better. Did you get your own back at Valentine? For doing all this?” 

“No. I have no idea where he is now in the world. All the resources I had before are… no longer in place,” Harry said delicately. Kingsman still operated in the world, that much he was sure of. But it was no longer the Kingsman he remembered, bound now to Valentine’s will. “We’re working on it,” he added.

“Bullshit,” Eggsy said dryly. “You goin’ around shooting Reavers, you mean.” 

“We’re looking for him with what we have left,” Harry shot back evenly. “But in the meantime, yes, I shoot Reavers. But only if I have no other alternative but to do so to save a life.” 

“You’re real good with that carbine.”

“We have some spares-”

“No, not for me,” Eggsy shook his head quickly. “I’ve seen enough death out there, me. Seen enough for one lifetime an’ more. If I have a gun, I’m just gonna be tempted to use it. But uh. This place. You got running water?”

“Yes?”

“If you don’t mind,” Eggsy said sheepishly, “Could I use a shower?” 

“Feel free.” 

Harry found Eggsy again in the front yard of the prison. Washed and shaved, he looked younger, for a moment seemingly unchanged from the last that Harry had seen him, a defiant boy wandering right out of jail. For a moment, Harry wondered whether things could’ve been different. If he had given in to his original impulse to put Eggsy forward as his Lancelot candidate. But the trials had been particularly difficult that year, and even Percival’s daughter had flunked out, having shown a previously hidden fear of heights. Perhaps Eggsy too would have flunked. Then nothing would have changed. 

Then Eggsy grinned at him, boyishly, starkly optimistic and cheerful, a strange and disorienting contrast from the gray concrete and fencing around him. “Man, I feel so much better. You have no idea. Even _Daisy_ here got a bath.” 

Daisy wagged its tail, letting out a happy bark. Harry patted it as it snuffled his knees. “Like I said. If you want to stay, the offer’s open.”

“Nah. I’m going to hit the road while the sun’s still out. Thanks for the food and everything. I’ll send people your way if I see any.” 

Harry nodded, disappointed. “Good luck.” 

Eggsy hesitated for a moment, then he marched over, and to Harry’s surprise, Eggsy stood up on tip toes, and kissed Harry on the forehead, balancing himself with a hand on Harry’s arm. “Hey,” Eggsy said quietly. “Don’t beat yourself up over what happened, aite? It’s already happened. And I think you probably did the best you could. I mean. You got shot, man. _I_ spent the end of the world high on drugs.”

Harry forced a smile, and leaned over on impulse to give Eggsy a peck on the cheek. “Thank you,” he said softly, as something unraveled a little within him, like a knot of guilt loosening, very slightly. Eggsy grinned at him, pleased, and headed for his car, a battered Toyota that looked as though it had seen far better days. Harry had arranged for it to be refuelled, and as Eggsy drove out of the compound, Harry stood by the main gates, watching the car navigate down the winding road out of the overgrown grounds. 

“You could follow him,” Merlin said into Harry’s earpiece. “Might be a good break.”

“No need,” Harry decided, as the car wound out of sight. “Somehow, I don’t believe that we’ve seen the last of Eggsy Unwin.”

**Author's Note:**

> aha.  
> ngl, I am totally excited for Fallout 4.  
> Thanks everyone who gave me a prompt! Long weekend over. Back to work :3  
> \--  
> twitter: manic_intent  
> tumblr: manic-intent


End file.
